Macchiarola, Koch Choice, Named Chancellor by Board of Education

Frank .1. Macchiarola, Mayor Koch's choice for Schools Chancellor, was appointed to the $56,775-a-year post yesterday by the Board of Education.

He becomes the chief executive of the nation's largest public school system, with one million pupils and 85,000 teachers and administrators. The one‐year appointment was seen by soma school officials as the first step in the Mayor's plan to gain control over educational decisions.

Mr. Macchiarola, a Brooklyn resident, succeeds Irving Anker, who will retire this June.

There was some speculation last fall, when Mr. Anker announced his retirement, that some board members had eased him out in all effort to divert some of City Hall's criticism and thus save their own jobs. The board's term, along with Mr: Anker's, expires this June, and conceivably, with the appointment of Mr. Koch's candidate yesterday, some board members could be reappointed by the Mayor or by Borough Presidents.

Mr. Macchiarola, 37 years old, is vice president for institutional advancement of the Graduate School of the City University, a former deputy director of the Emergency Financial Control Board and one of the Mayor's key advisers on educational matters.

After City Hall dropped Representative Shirley Chisholm of Brooklyn as its candidate for Chancellor, the Mayor was determined to press for Mr. Macchiarola. In recent days City Hall's pressure on the board had intensified, school officials said. Mr. Koch spoke to several board members on Mr. Macchiarola's behalf in recent days.

Mr. Macchiarola was selected after a heated two-and-a-half-hour, closed‐door meeting at a midtown school. The seven members of the Board of Education cast numerous votes among the five final candidates.

“It was like a political convention,” said one hoard member who did not wish to he identified. In the end, the choice was between Mr. Macchiarola, who is also president of School Board 22 in Brooklyn, and Dr. Theodore Wiesenthal, the superintendent. of District 10 in the Bronx.

Board members were reluctant to discuss their vote, but according to one report, it was 4‐3. The Board of Education will formally announce its vote at a public meeting, probably next month, and by that time, said one board member, the vote will probably he unanimous.

At City Hall, Mayor Koch issued statement praising the selection.

“The board made a wise choice, and I believe Frank Macchiarola will serve with distinction in this vital position. forwarded Frank's name because I felt he would make an outstanding Chancellor. I am gratified that the board, which considered many qualified persons for this post, concurred in that judgment.”

At the headquarters of the United Federation of Teachers, the union's president, Albert Shanker, was less enthusiastic. He had opposed the Macchiarola candidacy, and shortly after the board announced the appointment, Mr. Shanker made the following terse announcement:

“The appointment has been made, and we hope he will demonstrate that we have been wrong, The Chancellor's task will be to enlist all who work in our schools as allies in the good fight to improve them. He can only do this by sensitive awareness of teacher problems and needs. I have never been reluctant to admit a mistake, and in the interests of our school system and U.F.T. members, I hope I have the opportunity to do so

Clearly elated by his appointment, Mr. on this appointment.”

Mr. Shanker, who also had opposed Mrs. Chisholm because, he said, she did not have the qualifications to administer the nation's largest school system, was even more vehement about Mr. Macchiarola.

When the candidate was deputy director of the Emergency Financial Control Board, he had opposed approval of the U.F.T. contract and had maintained tough position against teacher salary increases. As president of Community School Board 22, Mr. Macchiarola had won a city‐residency requirement for teachers in the district, another move denounced by Mr. Shanker.

In an interview yesterday, Mr. Macchiarola seemed willing to put aside differences with Mr. Shanker. “The past is the past,” he said, “and I hope to be able to work closely with everyone.”

Macchiarola, a lawyer and former counsel to the Assembly's Codes Committee, said his major role as Chancellor would be “to make kids learn more.” He said he would not elaborate on how he intended to do that, preferring to answer questions more fully at a news conference scheduled for noon today at the Board of Education's headquarters at 110 Livingston Street, Brooklyn.

In stating that his primary goal was “to make kids learn more,” Mr. Macehiarola seemed to be advancing the Mayor's sentiments. During his campaign and since his election, Mr. Koch has classified education, along with law enforcement, as top‐priority areas for his administration. And several times he has made the statement—unusual for a politician—that he will be personally responsible for making sure public‐school seudents learn how to read and write.

Mr. Macchiarola's appointment comes at a time when the public‐school system has been under attack, with critics charg- ing that standards have been so lowered that high‐school graduates have only the minimum training to hold jobs cr to succeed in college.

His appointment also comes when the Mayor is seeking state legislation to appoint a majority of the members of the Board of Education. The proposed legislation wculd give the Mayor control over the appointment of the Schools Chancellor one year from June 30—when Mr. Macchiarola's term expires—and would give the Mayor a voice in changing school policies and priorities. Before 1969 —and before the passage of the decentralization law—the Mayor was empowered to appoint all Board of Education members.

According to one board member, a majority of the members were undecided when they began the luncheon meeting at noon yesterday at which the Chancellor was to be selected.

“There were so many votes, it wasn't even funny,” this beard member said. Besides Mr. Macchiarola and Mr. Wiesenthal, the remaining candiates were Robert L. Schain, principal of Wingate High School in Brooklyn; William Schine, Superintendent of Schools in Cherry Hill. N.J., and a former assistant state education commissioner; and Barbara Jackson, a dean at Atlanta Universiey in Georgia.

The five candidates were judged according to criteria set up by a group of university educators and the three members of the Board of Education who served as a search committee.

Several board members contended yesterday that while Mr. Macchiarola had the fiscal expertise to oversee the board's S2.8 billion annual budget. he did not have a firm knowledge of the publicschool system and its teachers and administrators, or a clear understanding of the ethnic, racial and religious diversity and conflicts in the citywide school system.

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A version of this archives appears in print on April 18, 1978, on Page 81 of the New York edition with the headline: Macchiarola, Koch Choice, Named Chancellor by Board of Education. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe